


Once I Was Harder To Bruise

by xantissa



Series: Carnival of Rust [8]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Fix-It, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-20
Updated: 2013-06-20
Packaged: 2017-12-15 14:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/850445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xantissa/pseuds/xantissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They awaken the first crew member they managed to rescue. It’s horrifying.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once I Was Harder To Bruise

They’d all gathered in the medbay to witness the awakening of the first member of Khan’s crew they’d managed to find. Uhura and Spock stood by the entrance, ostensibly to give the doctor some privacy, but both of them were armed. Khan had assured them there would be no problem but no one as yet trusted his word. McCoy was hovering over the cryotube waving different scanners around it like magic wands. Khan was on the other side of the cryotube, hands folded over his chest, brows lowered and giving off a serious ‘ _do not approach_ ’ vibe. He was nervous, Jim realized. The forced stillness spoke of his need to pace, to move. It was something Jim noticed about him before. Khan used movement to express emotion, but he was conscious of that habit, so when emotion arose he would cease all movement beyond the one he consciously planned. In a way, his stillness became more dangerous than any outburst of rage.

 

With a hiss, the top section of the cryotube opened. After the rush of cold gas had cleared, they could see a slender woman. Only her head and upper body were visible in the partially opened tube.

 

She had long red hair, now lying limp and dark around her on the hard inner surface of the tube. She had pale skin that still tinged blue from  cryostatis. Her profile was almost delicate and above all beautiful. It was something Jim had expected actually. If all of  Khan’s crew were genetically engineered humans they would all be the pinnacle of physical possibility. No crooked noses, moles or uneven chins in sight.

 

There was something in her skin, her overall demeanor that spoke of her being related to Khan though. It was... an odd sensation. Probably just déjà vu, caused by the similar genetic profile.

 

Jim watched Khan just as much as he watched her. He saw the rapidly ratcheting tension in the man, could almost taste it, even if his face was still almost frozen. Kirk realized Khan could give Spock a run for his money in the poker face department.

 

The hiss of the hyposprays Bones had started to inject into the woman were oddly loud in the quiet medbay. One after another, he pumped various substances into her bloodstream all the while keeping an eye on her vitals, displayed on the screen above her.

 

First there was a rapid spike in heartbeat and brain activity, then Jim could see rapid movement of her eyes beneath the still closed lids. Bones frowned but Khan was already in motion.

 

He was at her side in seconds, one large hand reaching down to press at her chest just as she opened her eyes, wide and wild, and surged up. The whole table shook with the force Khan used to slam her down.

 

“No.” He said calmly, forcefully. “Stay calm. You are safe.”

 

She didn’t seem to hear him though. She opened her mouth, gasping for breath, her eyes wildly rolling from side to side, obviously dealing with information overload.

 

Throughout her thrashing Khan was trying to fit his other palm against the side of her neck in a gesture Jim had become intimately familiar with in recent days. He realized Khan was trying to establish the same kind of contact as he had with Jim to calm his rages. She was jerking around too much though and his hand constantly slipped, as he was obviously trying not to hurt her.

 

She kept gasping, as if she couldn’t get enough oxygen into her lungs. In a sudden movement she was able to free one of her hands from the tube. Flailing, she knocked both the monitor and Bones aside and then connected with Khan’s arm still holding her down.

 

Everything seemed to happen at once. Instead of gasping, she suddenly opened her mouth wide and started screaming. The sound was horrible, like someone was trying to rip her apart, as if she was dying. Her flailing hand curled around Khan’s, fingers digging with enough strength to punch through cloth and right into his own flesh, causing blood to run down Khan’s hand. The man didn’t flinch though, he just pressed his other hand against the side of her face and bent down even more over her, repeating the words ‘you are safe, you are not alone’ like a mantra.

 

She hiccupped, her breath hitching once the contact was established, but then instead of screaming she started sobbing so hard, wailing almost. Her face became twisted in expression of such pain, such raw suffering it was hard to look at her. She was still shaking, trying to say something between the uncontrollable sobs, tearing at Khan even more.

 

The other man was bent almost half over her, repeating the words over and over again but Jim wasn’t the only one to notice that Khan’s face was wet with tears, his voice no longer smooth.

 

“Gone” was one of the words Jim caught from her “all gone”.

 

Finally something in Khan seemed to break. He let go of her, his face twisted into something as horrible as her’s and he ripped the rest of the cryotube apart with his bare hands, the screech of metal and plastic tearing barely audible over the anguish pouring from the woman. None too gently, barely even aware of his own bleeding hands, Khan reached for the woman again pulling her bodily from the rest of the cryotube and taking her into his arms. She curled into him immediately, burying her face in his chest. That didn’t stop her from making the most horrifying sounds Jim had ever heard in his life. With his face twisted in something between pain and rage Khan stormed out of the medbay, the woman cradled fiercely in his arms.

 

No one tried to stop him.

 

Even after they were both gone, the room seemed to echo with the anguish they’d just witnessed.

 

Bones slowly pulled himself from the floor where he had fallen, a slight green tint to his face. Jim looked at his two remaining officers. Uhura was still and silent, her face much paler than usual and eyes wide with shock. Spock looked thrown, shoulders hunched in discomfort.

 

Nobody said anything, the suffering of that woman was so raw, so real, so horribly vivid none of them dared to comment for a very, very long moment.

 

“Her vitals were all good, but I maybe should...” Bones started, hesitant and unwilling to look anybody in the eye. Something was bothering the doctor, had been weighing heavily on his mind for a while now.

 

“No.” Jim interjected. “Physically there isn’t much that can hurt her at this moment and I think Khan is the one best equipped to deal with this... situation.”

 

No one argued with him. Truth was, none of them wanted to witness such a thing ever again. It made them think too much, wonder too much about what could cause such a reaction, things they hadn’t thought to ask before, things they might not want to know.

 

The end

12-06-2013

**Author's Note:**

> People, give me kudos! It's just a button, press it.


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